Moms Rule the Web
According to a June, 2009 study released by eMarketer, 34 Million Moms log onto the Web every month, making them one of the largest demographic groups online today. Not only are they one of the largest, they’re also some of the most powerful demographics for marketers to target.
“Moms visit parenting and family Websites, but they also regularly view news, weather and political content online,” says Debra Aho Williamson, eMarketer senior analyst and author of the new report,Moms Online: More Influential Than Ever. “They shop for their kids—and themselves, and when they find something great for their family, they talk about it, not only with their family and friends, but often with a much broader online audience.”
Having your brand cross them can cause disastrous results for your brand, but actively engaging them can lead to successful marketing campaigns, increased sale, and a hugely viral word of mouth campaign that can leave our bosses or clients beaming.
Why are Moms such an important target for marketers?
1. Moms make the bulk of household purchases – and therefore, are responsible for determining what brands to spend their family dollars on.
2. They talk. Mom blogs have some of the highest comment counts of any blogs on the Web today.
3. They network. Reach one Mom blogger with an impressive product, and she’s guaranteed to tell her fellow bloggers about your product.
4. They take each other, and their organizations, seriously. Mom bloggers use networking groups, online organizations, and connections made through chatting and conferences to help each other more than most other groups.
Point one should be enough to have you, a markterer, taking notice. As someone tasked with reaching out to brand ambassadors online, you should be asking yourself what you can do to make sure that your marketing efforts are “mom-friendly.” Are your outreach efforts reaching the mom blogger community? And more importantly, are you communicating with them in a language that is effective and will encourage them to test, review, and discuss your product with other bloggers?
A survey by Razorfish and CafeMom found that Websites, referrals from friends and family, and information from search engines were the most common sources online moms used to make a purchasing decisions.
Knowing how to interact with these powerful, savvy bloggers can make the difference between a successful campaign or a few spotty placements that will have little affect on your company’s sales and image. Connecting with the large number of mom bloggers on the Web can be a time-consuming task. Most aren’t listed in traditional media databases, so manually collecting contact information for them – or learning which bloggers are “hub moms” can take months of research, but the fact that more ad dollars are spent on mom blogs than almost any other blogs on the Web should be a testament to their value.
